


Spirit

by AshsHorrorShow



Category: Punch-Out!! (Video Games)
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 12:18:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6704299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshsHorrorShow/pseuds/AshsHorrorShow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe there is something more to boxing than just physical strength.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spirit

“Glass” Joe Lachance was honestly the most pathetic man Von Kaiser had ever witnessed. While Von Kaiser himself could never boast about having the best boxing record in the world (much to his dismay), he could at the very least say he wasn’t nearly as bad as Glass Joe. To this day, Von Kaiser still wasn’t sure why the officials still allowed for Joe to be kept in the ring. The Frenchman was well into retirement age and it wasn’t as if Joe was exactly a moneymaker. After all, the man had managed to fight in a hundred fights (how he survived was beyond Von Kaiser), and out of all of them, he had only managed to win one… and even that victory was somewhat questionable in nature. According to the rumors he heard, the only reason Joe had actually been declared the winner of the match was only because his opponent had fallen ill and therefore, couldn’t fight, which allowed Joe to win by default. Whether or not this was actually true, Von Kaiser couldn’t be sure. The boxing community did tend to be a bit gossipy and facts tended to get skewed or exaggerated a bit, but if it was true, Von Kaiser certainly wouldn’t of be surprised. It would definitely explain why Joe never seemed to eager to describe his one victory. 

Joe was an interesting man in the fact that all you had to do was look at him for a few seconds to see why he had such a poor boxing record. Pale skin, big nose, scrawny form, little muscle mass, gaunt face, sunken-in eyes, flimsy hair, and a look of seemingly abject fear or timidness constantly on his face. Just looking at at him made Von Kaiser feel a strange sense of pity, which was a rare feeling for Von Kaiser. It was like watching a scrawny little dog getting kicked around. 

The matches were always the same. Joe would go out in the ring with his head held high, announcing his name with a shred of pride… only to come back bloody and unconscious, being carried off by the paramedics. It was nothing new. However, as he watched Joe get absolutely decimated in yet another match, the German couldn’t help but wonder why the Frenchman did always come back. How many times did you have to be concussed or beaten before you realized you were simply no good? What drove him to keep going? Had the man really been punched so much that it had knocked all the sense and rationale out of him at some point? At some point, Von Kaiser had finally decided he wanted answers to that question, so one day, after Joe lost yet another match, he found which hospital the Frenchman was staying in and went over there to visit. 

When he was there, he and Joe had made small talk like they usually did when they happened to meet up with each other, before finally, Von Kaiser couldn’t take it anymore and had asked Joe all of those questions before with all of the bluntness he could.

He had expected Joe to be somewhat discouraged by his words. Von Kaiser had a tendency to break people’s spirits sometimes with his less-than-empathetic words. However, Joe actually managed to surprise him. Instead of shrinking back or blubbering like Von Kaiser thought he would, the man instead went into a short, thoughtful silence before he turned to Von Kaiser with bright, hopeful eyes and said, “Parce que le prochain match, je pourrais gagner.” 

That was the moment when Von Kaiser realized Joe was not simply some moron who didn’t know when to quit. No, Joe was a boxer who had more confidence and drive than any of the other boxers in the damn right apparently. Because despite what no doubt others had told him, despite his limited odds, despite how many times he had landed up in the hospital, Joe Lalance was determined to win once again and he refused to give up on the sport he loved until he accomplished his goal. There was something quite admirable after that. 

After hearing those words, Von Kaiser found himself silently promising he would befriend Joe and get to know him even better.

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe I actually wrote this... haha. I wrote a majority of this when I very into Punch Out a while ago, and decided to finish it up finally. Hope you enjoyed it! 
> 
> Critiques, as always, are welcome. 
> 
> Also, in case anyone wants to know, what Joe says is, "Because next game, I could win." (However, I used Google Translate to do this so the translation could be very off or rough).


End file.
